Representative of the Commonwealth Secretariat, Dr. Deryck Brown, Head of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Technical Cooperation and Strategic Response Group for the Governance and Institutional Development Division
Ambassador Kishan Rana, Senior Fellow, Diplofoundation, Malta and Geneva and Professor Emeritus, Foreign Service Institute, New Delhi
Representatives from CARICOM Member States
Representatives of the Institute of International Relations and the University of the West Indies
Members of Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat

The Secretary-General would have liked to be present at this important high-level regional consultation, in light of the importance he attaches to diplomatic training for the Foreign Ministries of the Member States of the Caribbean community. He has however had to attend another equally important meeting and has asked me to extend a warm welcome to representatives. I myself welcome you to the Secretariat and look forward to fruitful consultations over the next two days that will redound to the benefit of our Region.

The CARICOM Secretariat is pleased to collaborate with the Commonwealth Secretariat in organising this event to identify the diplomatic capacity-building needs of the Caribbean Community. I wish to acknowledge, as well, the support of the Malta-Commonwealth Third Country Training Programme in facilitating the participation of the Commonwealth members of the Caribbean Community.

Today, CARICOM countries, like several small states, are being increasingly confronted with a number of challenges that have stretched the existing capacities of their diplomatic service to the fullest. Some of these challenges include –

• Ineligibility for concessionary financing to support development needs, coupled with rapidly growing debt burden;
• Additional demands and compliance costs associated with global efforts to combat terrorism;
• Climate change and its concomitant challenges of food security, energy security and water security;
• Rising levels of brain drain from outward migration;
• Increasing levels of poverty;
• Crime and violence, the trafficking of illicit drugs and arms and the necessary divergence of funds to fight these scourges; and
• The faster-than-anticipated erosion of preferential trade access arrangements.

It has been said that the greatest assurance of the survival of small states lies in their ability to maximise benefits from the existence of international law, multi-lateral institutions and diplomacy. And, indeed, there is strong evidence to suggest that the collective efforts of small states in the international arena have met with some measure of success. For example, it was the skilled advocacy of small states that assisted in catapulting the concept of vulnerability into the spotlight of international affairs in the latter half of the twentieth century. A meeting of experts on small states convened by the United Nations in December 1997 concluded that:

“SIDS [Small Island Developing States] are more vulnerable than other groups of developing countries and their vulnerability is structural, which means that shocks are beyond the control of national authorities”

In 2005, by way of the Gozo statement on vulnerable small states, Commonwealth Heads of Government reaffirmed their support for the Secretariat's assistance to Commonwealth small states through practical programmes of advocacy, policy development and capacity building. The CARICOM Secretariat is cognizant of the importance of strengthened diplomacy within the Region. To this end we would like to place on record, our appreciation to the Commonwealth Secretariat for the level of assistance it has provided over the past 20 years to facilitate our regional training programme for middle-level diplomats, and look forward with much anticipation to the outcome of these deliberations as we prepare for the programme scheduled for May 2009 in Guyana.

Several CARICOM Member States have made requests to our Secretariat as well as the Commonwealth Secretariat to redouble our efforts to organise diplomatic training at the regional level. Considering the limited human resources in most of the foreign ministries around our Region, and in view of the increased range and importance of diplomatic engagement in today’s world and the consequent need to build versatile and skilled foreign services in member states of the Community, the CARICOM Secretariat has partnered with the Commonwealth Secretariat in order to explore the real needs of the Community’s Foreign Ministries and devise a sustainable plan of action towards meeting those needs swiftly and comprehensively.

In today’s knowledge-based society, development is dependent on the capacity of knowledgeable practitioners in any given field to mobilise their skill, creativity, vision and passion to engineer change and progress. The field of diplomacy and international relations is no different. The need for knowledgeable practitioners in that field no less urgent. Indeed in a region with one of the highest rates of emigration of skilled persons in the world, the need to train and retrain our foreign policy experts is perhaps exceptionally urgent.

The small territories of the Caribbean have, in their comparatively short existence as sovereign territories, produced some of the world’s most respected intellectuals and diplomats. The continuation of this tradition of excellence in the field of international relations is critical to the survival and further development of the Region. To maintain and improve it, however, the Region must provide effective and relevant training for its professionals.

These high-level regional consultations on diplomatic training in the Caribbean, seek to define and deliver training programmes that will adequately address the capacity building needs of the twenty-first century Caribbean diplomat. This is no small undertaking; for in a century marked by developments and challenges unparalleled in humankind’s history, the efficacious diplomat requires unprecedented levels of skill and knowledge. And yet, though this century boasts increasingly abundant and accessible knowledge, it is marked also by elitist and unjust conditions that disadvantage the poor in resources but wealthy in potential.

Consultations such as these serve to counter the inverse proportionality of this reality by injecting much needed resources into potential with a view to achieving exponentially positive results. The immense creativity and potential of our small Caribbean’s big diplomatic minds and requirements will be partly met by the relevant programmes that are conceptualised by our experienced Foreign Service officials and delivered under this CARICOM-Commonwealth Partnership for Diplomatic Training. Some of the programmes identified in one of the documents entitled “Diplomatic Training: Options and Opportunities” appear to be as exciting, divergent and challenging as the issues that characterise our era.

No tool or technique should be spared in delivering relevant, adapted and effective training. From e-learning to the physical classroom to hybrid internships, and from consular functions to conflict resolution, the format and substance of the diplomatic training to be delivered should be dynamic, varied, intensive and results oriented.

The full range of Commonwealth facilities available to facilitate the delivery of diplomatic training programmes has been outlined as well as the responses by Member States to the questionnaires. These will form the basis for discussions over the next two days

Once again, I take this opportunity to thank the Commonwealth Secretariat for its continued support to the capacity-building needs of the countries of our Region. I offer a special word of thanks to Dr. Brown for taking the initiative to collaborate with the CARICOM Secretariat in convening this meeting at this time. I know we will enjoy every success and that we will arrive at a programme that will contribute towards the strengthening of the voice of our small states in the global arena.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org